• Question: Do you ever find the drug discovery process unrewarding due to the process taking along time and not getting imediate gratification?

    Asked by Jenny to David on 14 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by EG.
    • Photo: David Foley

      David Foley answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Hi Jenny – nice question.

      It is very hard to discover a drug, taking around 15 years of a large team’s time and 0.5-5 billion dollars of money. 95% of the time, we fail. Whist this is frustrating, it is merely a reflection of our limite dunderstanding of the human body and actually an inspiration to push on.

      Even though most projects will fail, along the way they will shed light on how disease work. I am always happy, therefore, to be contributing in a small way to improving our understanding of the body.

      We also operate on a “milestone” basis – first prove it works in a cell, then an animal, then make a molecule good enough to be a drug, then test in humans. I’m proud to say I’ve reached the first milestone many times, am currently waiting on data to reach the second milestone in my current project. So we’re always pushing towards the next milestone – each with its own challenges and gratifications.

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